If you are familiar with many of the financial websites currently on the market, you have likely noticed a trend in “conjoining” words. What does this mean? Let’s take a look at a few fictional examples of this process:

-TradeUnion
-Trade2You
-ForexThoughts
-AdvisorPortal

While this was a unique idea in the past, such an “alphabet soup” of companies has actually had the opposite effect; many companies and their logos have become rather homogenised into one confusing mass of conjoined text. This should be avoided at all costs these days. Not only is this due to the fact that these words are harder to read, but they are actually harder to type. Does this really make a difference? According to many analysts, it indeed does. The average individual looking for financial advice needs any search to be quick and streamlined. By simply placing a space between two words, this pitfall can be avoided. However, some of the most common errors stem from much more than a “crunched logo” alone.

Dollar Signs and More?

While there is no doubt that every financial portal is normally attempting to sell a certain product or service, the visitor should never FEEL like he or she is being sold something. This can be off-putting from the very start. One of the ways that this can occur is to incorporate dollar, euro or pound signs into a logo (think of the “fly-by-night” millionaires promising to divulge their secrets to you for only a one-time payment of a few hundred pounds). Not only is this approach tacky, but it simply does not work anymore. Solid advice stems from advice, not dollar signs and perceived wealth. So, many marketing analysts feel that such symbols should be avoided at all costs.

Imagery

Such publications as the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal have always embraced a rather stark and bold look to appeal to their no-nonsense audiences. Coincidentally, these are the same publications that heralded in the financial crisis in recent years. So, we must also approach logo design from a decidedly psychological standpoint. Many individuals (especially those with less experience in the markets) will actually associate this font and lettering with hardship on an unconscious level. So, it should be obvious that such designs should be avoided. Instead, a logo should boast more of a humanistic approach and just as importantly, a graphical design or backdrop will help to draw the visitor’s attention to the product itself. This rather “soft” approach is seen to be more appealing than the hard-line text of the past.

This is known as a “passive sell” in logo terms. In other words, the visitor must first be drawn to the logo before he or she decides to move on. Not only does this mean that the logo should be made clearly visible when one first enters a page, but it also needs to be appealing, timeless and above all, without a sense of “no-nonsense” that ushered in the very same nonsense that crippled the world only a few years ago.